


Ghosts That We Knew

by toswimamongthestars



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Spoilers for season one, like don't read this if you haven't finished season one, post-Undertaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-01-06
Packaged: 2018-03-06 07:33:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3126239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toswimamongthestars/pseuds/toswimamongthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurel cleans out Tommy's apartment and finds a ring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts That We Knew

Laurel finds it while looking through Tommy's things. It had fallen to her to clean out his apartment, because she may have been his ex, but she had still been his closest friend. Besides, Oliver had run away, Malcolm was dead, and Thea could barely handle just being at the funeral.

So Laurel, heavy with grief and guilt and anger, boxes up everything Tommy had owned.

The thing is in the bottom of his top drawer, the one full of a jumble of socks. A small, velvet box. Dark blue.

Laurel stares at it for far too long before daring to pick it up. Tears had already flooded her eyes, because she knows what sort of things went in boxes like this, and she can't--

She can't. It's too soon.

 

Opening it happens almost a week later, when she's had too much wine and she's alone in her apartment and she misses Tommy so much it's like a hole in her chest.

The box seems to weigh so much as she holds it in her hand. For a moment, she entertains the thought that maybe it's earrings. Pearls, or maybe some tasteful, small rubies. Tommy always went for size, wanted to get her the biggest stones and the nicest dinners, and it had taken so long for her to get it through his head that all she wanted was _him_.

Well. That didn't turn out to be quite true now, did it. Oliver had always been in the background, like a ghost neither of them could quite shake.

And now Tommy was the ghost, and Laurel knew already that she was never going to be rid of him and his smile.

She takes a gulp of wine for strength and flips open the box.

It wasn't earrings.

Laurel closes her eyes, trying to get control of herself. But control is something she left behind miles ago, so she looks again, vision swimming.

It is a very nice ring. A platinum band, three diamonds of modest size. A good balance between expensive and classy. 

Perfect for her.

 

After all the sobbing has subsided, Laurel goes through the records of Tommy's purchases, because she has to know as much as she can. She finds the sale on his credit card, and is able to find the shop connected to the receipt. 

She goes down there the next morning, and the elderly man behind the counter recognizes the ring immediately. 

“It was custom-made,” he tells her. “A nice young man came in, about two months ago. Told me it was for a very special girl.” He smiled kindly at her. “You his girl?”

Laurel tries a smile, but it fades almost instantly. “...I was,” she says. “But...the quake.”

She doesn't have to say more. Everyone lost someone that night. 

The man pats her arm, expression sympathetic. “I'm sorry. I take it he didn't get the chance to give you the ring?”

“No, he didn't.” 

“He told me that he wasn't sure if he was ready to pop the question yet, but he knew for sure that he was going to. He said you were just the one. He loved you a whole lot.”

Laurel nods, throat tight. “Thank you,” she says quickly, and leaves the shop. 

She cries in her car, the box held against her chest and her head pressed to the steering wheel. Tommy's face was in her head, making everything hurt so much more. Tommy laughing, smiling, showing up at her door with take-out, promising to be a one-girl kind of guy...

She hadn't believed him then. But he had convinced her.

 

She keeps the ring nestled in its box, tucked into the corner of a bookshelf where she won't see it every day. 

Not seeing it doesn't really make a difference. Everything else reminds her of Tommy, too. But she can't get rid of it, and she can't leave it out where someone might ask what she's doing with a diamond ring laying around. 

After a long, long time, she's able to pull it out and look at it without crying. 

It fits her, and she doesn't wear it longer than a few seconds, but seeing it on her finger feels like closure, somehow. Maybe like forgiveness. 

Whatever it is, it's enough. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> title from Mumford and Son's 'Ghosts That We Knew'.


End file.
